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AUTHOR: 


COULTER,  CORNELIA 


TITLE: 


PLAUTINE  TRADITION  IN 
SHAKESPEARE 

PLACE: 

[ILLINOIS] 

DA  TE : 

[1 920] 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


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Coulter,    Cornelia   C. 

U,e   PlauMne    iradition    u.    Shakespeare^hf  mi  crof  orn,  | 
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'     THE  JOURNAL  OF 
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Commonplaces  in  Elizabethan  Life  and  Letters  65 

which  contribute  to  the  final  development  of  Bacon's  essays 
belonged  to  the  general  literary  practice  of  the  time  and  were 
specifically  of  the  kind  which  Bacon  would  be  expected  to 
employ  in  the  process  of  elaboration,  which,  in  point  of  fact,  he 
did  employ  in  his  regular  compositions  and  which  he  did  not 
derive  from  other  essayists  or  aphorists.  But  the  purpose  of  this 
paper  is  not  to  establish  Bacon's  entire  independence  of  literary 
models;  it  is  intended  only  to  indicate  the  extent  of  the  liking 
which  men  in  the  sixteenth  century  had  for  a  species  of  didactic 
sententiousness  and  the  natural  emergence  from  that  taste  of 
the  style  of  essay-writing  of  which  the  pointed  sentence  consti- 
tutes the  nucleus  and  prevailing  unit  and  of  which  the  greatest 
representative  was  Francis  Bacon. 

Jacob  Zeitlin 

University  of  Illinois 


66 


Coulter 


THE  PLAUTINE  TRADITION  IN  SHAKESPEARE 

For  the  student  of  the  history  of  literature,  the  plays  of 
Plautus  and  Terence  have  a  unique  value;  they  are  the  only 
complete  representatives  of  the  Greek  Comedy  of  Manners, 
and  they  serve  in  turn  as  the  inspiration  of  dramatists  of  the 
Renaissance  throughout  the  whole  of  Western  Europe.  Stand- 
ing midway  in  the  long  line,  they  gather  up  the  most  significant 
traits  of  their  predecessors  to  hand  on  to  their  descendants. 

The  tradition,  to  be  sure,  is  not  unbroken.  Though  Saint 
Jerome  confessed  that  many  a  time  in  his  unregenerate  days, 
Plautus  sumebatur  in  manus,  and  though  the  pious  nun  of 
Gandersheim  lamented  the  fondness  of  the  clergy  for  the 
unchaste  dramas  of  Terence,  the  elder  poet  soon  ceased  to  be 
read  at  all,  and  the  younger  was  valued  chiefly  for  his  sapienter 
dicta  } 

But  with  the  Revival  of  Learning,  the  Latin  dramatists 
regained  their  prestige.  Both  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  copied 
manuscripts  of  Terence  with  their  own  hands,  and  both 
expressed  in  no  measured  terms  their  admiration  for  the  genius 
of  Plautus.  Editions,  commentaries,  and  translations  into 
Italian,  French,  and  German  followed,  together  with  perform- 
ances of  the  plays,  both  in  Latin  and  in  the  vernacular.  Italy 
took  the  lead  in  these  productions:  the  Asinaria  was  given 
about  1485  in  the  University  of  Rome,  the  Menaechmi  in  1488  at 
a  school  in  Florence,  and  in  1502  at  the  Vatican;  and  the  courts 
of  Ferrara  and  Mantua  witnessed  eleven  different  plays  of 
Plautus  and  three  of  Terence  within  this  same  period  (1486- 
1502).  It  was  a  young  poet  of  Ferrara,  Lodovico  Ariosto,  who 
wove  together  threads  from  half  a  dozen  Latin  plays  to  make 
the  first  Italian  comedy,  La  Cassaria  (1498?).  Bibbiena's 
Calandria  (a  variation  on  the  theme  of  the  Menaechmi) ,  Mac- 
chiavelli's  Clizia  (from  the  Casino)  ^  and  a  host  of  others, 
carried  on  the  tradition.  In  these  dramas,  classical  elements 
gradually  combined  with  philosophic  and  romantic  themes, 
and  with  popular  improvised  material  from  the  Commedia  dell' 

*  See  W.  Creizenach,  Geschichte  des  neueren  Dramas  (Halle,  1893-1909), 
Vol.  I,  pp.  1-46. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


67 


Arte.  There  resulted  a  well-defined  type  of  comedy,  with  plots 
closely  akin  to  the  Latin;  stock  figures  like  the  Pantaloon  (in 
the  garb  of  a  Magnifico  of  Venice),  the  Pedant  or  Doctor,  the 
Spanish  Captain,  and  the  Zanni  (a  servant,  half  rascal,  half 
clown,  who  generally  spoke  Bergamask  dialect);  and  a  recog- 
nized set  of  laughter-producing  devices  called  lazzi.^ 

At  the  same  time  there  was  growing  up  on  Italian  soil  a  form 
of  literature  destined  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  on  the 
development  of  comedy.  The  prose  tales  of  Boccaccio,  Ban- 
dello,  Cinthio,  and  Straparola,  gathered  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe— bits  of  distorted  classical  mythology  and  history,  marve- 
lous stories  from  the  East,  and  the  humorous  scenes  from  real 
life  depicted  in  the  French  fabliaux — dealt  with  many  of  the 
same  characters  and  presented  many  of  the  same  situations  as 
the  classical  Comedy  of  Manners.  For  some  of  these  similari- 
ties, we  need  no  further  explanation  than  the  universality  of 
human  nature;  others  may  perhaps  be  ascribed  to  descent  from 
a  common  ancestor — the  Euripidean  auaypupLais,  for  instance, 
coming  down  by  one  line  through  Greek  New  Comedy  and  its 
Latin  adaptations,  and  by  another  through  the  Greek  and  the 
mediaeval  romances.  To  the  dramatist  of  Italy,  and  of  France 
and  Spain  as  well,  the  novelle  offered  a  wealth  of  congenial  mate- 
rial, of  which  he  was  not  slow  to  avail  himself.  Thus  ty^pical 
figures  like  the  duped  parent  and  the  jealous  lover  attained  a 
double  popularity,  and  the  trickery,  disguises,  and  mistaken 
identity  of  the  novella  added  many  a  merry  incident  to  the 
complications  of  the  stage.^ 

In  Germany  and  Holland,  where  the  interest  in  Latin  comedy 
was  fostered  by  schoolmasters  intent  upon  improving  both  the 
minds  and  the  morals  of  their  young  pupils,  a  different  sort  of 

2  Creizenach,  GeschkfUe,  Vol.  I,  pp.  532, 572-583;  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-22;  217-226; 
235-302;  351-359.  Cf.  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  Ed.  Gascoigne's  Supposes  and  Jocasta 
(Boston,  1906),  Introd.,  pp.  ix-xxiv;  R.  Warwick  Bond,  Early  Plays  from  tlie 
Italian  (Oxford,  1911),  Introd.,  pp.  xvii-1;  W.  Smith,  Tlie  Commedia  deW 
Arte  (New  York,  1912),  pp.  1-102. 

>  On  the  romance  and  its  literary  relationships,  see  J.  C,  Dunlop,  History 
oj  Prose  Fiction^  Revised  Edition,  London,  1911;  E.  Rohde,  Der  griechische 
Roman,  Revised  Edition,  Leipzig,  1914;  S.  L.  Wolif,  The  Greek  Romances  in 
Elizabethan  Prose  Fiction,  New  York,  1912;  and  the  introduction  by  J.  E. 
Edmonds  and  appendix  by  S.  Gaselee  to  the  edition  of  Longus  in  the  Loeb 
Classical  Library,  London,  1916. 


68 


Coulter 


drama  arose,  the  so-called  "Christian  Terence."  This  type  of 
play  was  written  in  Latin,  and  aimed  to  combine  the  technique 
and  atmosphere  of  a  Roman  comedy  with  an  edifying  story  from 
Holy  Writ.  The  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  the  Apocrypha 
all  furnished  material,  but  by  far  the  most  popular  theme  was 
the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  The  Asotus  of  Macropedius 
(c.  1510?)  and  the  Acolastus  of  Gnapheus  (1529)  follow  the 
Biblical  narrative  with  very  little  change;  Macropedius's 
Rehelles  (1535)  and  Petriscus  (1536),  and  the  Sttidentes  of 
Stymmelius  (1549)  shift  the  scene  to  school  or  university,  but 
still  inculcate  the  same  moral."* 

England,  too,  felt  the  inspiration  of  the  Latin  dramatists. 
At  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  statutes  regulating  the  produc- 
tion of  comedies  and  tragedies  point  to  a  custom  of  acting 
already  well  established  by  the  middle  of  the  1 6th  Century;  and 
of  the  seventy-odd  plays  known  to  have  been  performed  at  those 
universities  between  1547  and  1583,  twenty-three  were  by 
Plautus  and  Terence.^  The  Andria  had  been  translated  into 
English  as  early  as  1497,  and  was  reprinted  at  least  three  times 
before  the  end  of  the  year  1588;^  while  selections  from  the  first 
three  plays  of  Terence  were  gathered  into  Nicholas  Udall's 
Flouresjor  Latine  spekynge  (1534-35).  Jacke  Jugeler  (1553-58?) 
gives  the  Mercury-Sosia  scene  of  the  Amphitruo  in  an  English 
setting,  and  Ralph  Roister  Doister  (1552-54?)  is  a  free  adaptation 
of  the  Miles  Gloriosus.  Both  these  early  plays,  as  well  as  the 
more  popular  Gammer  Our  tori's  Needle  (1550-53?),  show  the 
beneficent  influence  of  the  classics  in  structure,  though  the 
originality  of  the  characterization  and  the  freshness  of  the 
English  atmosphere  raise  them  far  above  the  level  of  mere 
imitations. 

Nor  did  the  classical  influence  cease  with  direct  borrowings 
from  the  Latin.    German  education-drama,  carried  to  England 

*  G.  H.  Herford,  Studies  in  the  Literary  Relations  of  England  and  Germany 
in  the  16th  Century  (Cambridge,  1886),  pp.  70-164;  M.  \V.  Wallace,  Ed.  of  The 
Birlhe  oj  Hercules  (Chicago,  1903),  Introd.,  pp.  45-59;  Creizenach,  Geschichte, 
Vol.  Ill,  pp.  246-249,  352-412;  Bond,  Early  Plays,  Introd.,  pp.  xci-cviii. 

*  F.  S.  Boas,  University  Drama  in  the  Tudor  Age  (Oxford,  1914),  pp.  16-18; 
386-389.  The  performance  of  the  Adelphi  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge,  in 
1547-8,  which  Boas  mentions  on  p.  18,  is  omitted  from  the  list  on  p.  386. 

*  C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke,  The  Tudor  Drama  (Boston,  1911),  p.  156. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


69 


by  the  translation  of  the  Acolastus  in  1540,  must  have  left  its 
mark  on  the  work  of  the  schoolmasters,  although  the  Latin 
dramas  of  Udall  and  Radcliffe  of  Hitchin  have  perished,  and 
the  only  remaining  examples  of  '^Schulkomodie"  in  the  manu- 
scripts of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  show  more  Italian  than 
German  influence.^  The  Prodigal  appears  in  two  interludes 
written  about  1550 — Nice  Wanton,  and  The  Disobedient  Child 
of  Thomas  Ingelend — and  the  same  theme  is  handled  with 
greater  art  by  George  Gascoigne  in  The  Glasse  of  Government. 

Meanwhile,  Italian  plays  like  Ariosto's  /  Suppositi  had  been 
translated  into  English,  and  Italian  romances  had  found  their 
way  into  England  (sometimes  through  French  or  Spanish 
translations)  in  collections  like  Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure. 
Troupes  of  Italian  actors,  too,  had  passed  from  the  capitals  of 
the  Continent  to  London,  and  had  given  many  a  splendid 
production  before  the  court.  Striking  testimony  to  the  per- 
formance, not  only  of  written  drama,  but  of  improvised  comedy, 
is  to  be  found  in  allusions  to  the  stock  roles  of  Italian  drama. 
The  scene-headings  and  stage  directions  of  the  earliest  editions 
of  Shakespeare's  plays  refer  to  certain  characters  as  ''the  Brag- 
gart," ''the  Pedant,"  "a  pantaloon"  {Love's  Labour's  Lost  III  A] 
IV.2;V.1;V.2;  Taming  of  the  Shrew  I  A).  Biron,in  Love's  Labour's 
Lost  V.2.  545,  lists  "the  pedant,  the  braggart,  the  hedge-priest, 
the  fool,  and  the  boy" ;  and  Jaques  includes  the  lover,  the  soldier, 
"the  lean  and  slippered  pantaloon"  in  the  "many  parts"  of  man- 
kind's "seven  ages"  {As  You  Like  It  II.7.139-166).  "The  old 
pantaloon"  is  referred  to  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  IIL1.37, 
and  "the  magnifico"  in  Othello  1.2.12  seems  to  have  the  same 
stereotyped  meaning.  "Zany"  is  used  in  the  proverbial  sense  of 
"fool"  in  Love's  Labour's  Lost  V.2.463  and  Twelfth  Night  1.5.96, 
and  it  is  barely  possible  that  the  "Bergomask  dance"  of  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream  V.  1.360  had  some  connection  with  the 
Zanni  from  Bergamo.  Allusions  to  improvising  {Antony  and 
Cleopatra  V.2.216-17;  Hamlet  II.2.420)  and  to  mountebanks 
{Hamlet  IV.7.142;  Othello  1.3.61;  Coriolanus  IIL2.132)  show 
familiarity  with  the  Commedia  dell' Arte;  and  the  mountebank 


'  See  the  synopses  of  the  Bellum  Grammaticak  and  Paedantius  by  G.  B. 
Churchill  and  W.  Keller  in  Shakespeare- J ahrbuch  34  (1898),  pp.  271-281,  and 
the  discussion  in  Boas,  University  Drama,  pp.  148-156,  255-265. 


70 


Coulter 


scene  in  Jonson*s  Volfone  (II.  1)  has  all  the  characteristic  traits 
of  the  improvised  farce.* 

In  English  drama  of  the  Elizabethan  period  we  may  there- 
fore expect  to  find  the  native  elements  which  already  existed  in 
the  moralities  and  interludes  touched  by  two  new  influences, 
one  introduced  directly  from  the  Latin,  the  other  filtering 
through  Dutch  and  German  education-drama  and  Italian  drama 
and  romance.  Shakespeare,  **soul  of  the  age,"  could  hardly 
have  escaped  these  influences.  As  to  his  knowledge  of  education- 
drama  we  have  no  direct  evidence,  but  his  acquaintance  with 
the  work  of  Italian  "professionals"  is  evident  from  the  passages 
just  quoted,  and  the  characterization  of  the  actors  for  whom 
"Seneca  can  not  be  too  heavy,  nor  Plautus  too  light"  {Hamlet 
II.2.  418-419)  testifies  to  his  familiarity  with  the  general  types 
of  Latin  drama.  Whenever  a  translation  was  available,  Shake- 
speare seems  to  have  preferred  it  to  the  original;  but  he  probably 
knew  enough  Latin  to  extract  the  plot  of  a  play,  had  a  working 
knowledge  of  French,  and  was  not  altogether  ignorant  of 
Italian.®  And  in  addition  to  all  the  suggestions  that  might 
reach  him  in  print,  he  undoubtedly  heard  much  talk  on  the 
literary  topics  of  his  day,  and  witnessed  the  production  of  a 
host  of  plays,  of  which  even  the  names  are  lost  to  us.^° 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  examine  the  plays  of  Shake- 
speare for  traces  of  the  Plautine  tradition,  both  direct  and 
indirect.  The  threads  are  so  interwoven  that  it  is  practically 
impossible  to  separate  the  two,  and  in  most  cases  it  is  useless  to 
attempt  to  discover  direct  borrowings.  Even  general  resem- 
blances must  be  noted  with  caution;  for  horseplay  and  farcical 
tricks  are  common  to  all  climes  and  ages,  and  it  is  even  possible 
that,  given  similar  circumstances,  the  same  comic  type  might 
arise   independently — as   the   figure   of   the   braggart   soldier 


*  Cf.  Smith,  Commedia  ddV  Arte,  pp.  141-199. 

•H.  R.  D.  Anders,  Shakespeare's  Books  (Berlin,  1904),  pp.  6-73.  The 
results  of  this  study  are  summarized  by  W.  A.  Neilson  and  A.  H.  Thomdike  in 
The  Facts  about  Shakespeare  (New  York,  1913),  pp.  50-59. 

^^  Cf.  the  famous  assertion  of  Stephen  Gosson,  in  Playes  confuted  in 
five  actions  (1582):  "I  may  boldely  say  it,  because  I  have  seene  it,  that  the 
Palace  of  pleasure,  the  Golden  Asse,  the  i^thiopian  historie,  Amadis  of  Frauncc, 
the  Rounde  table,  baudie  Comedies  in  Latine,  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish, 
have  beene  thoroughly  ransackt  to  furnish  the  Playe  houses  in  London." 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


71 


actually  did  in  Greece  of  the  4th  Century  B.C.  and  in    16th 
Century  Italy. ^^ 

But  after  all  these  allowances  have  been  made,  certain 
features  remain  to  prove  indisputably  Shakespeare's  kinship 
with  the  Latin  comic  poets.  We  may  note,  first  of  all,  resem- 
blances in  the  external  form  of  the  play.  The  ancient  Roman 
stage  normally  represented  a  street,  with  three  house  doors.^^ 
In  the  written  comedies  of  Renaissance  Italy  the  scene  was 
regularly  a  street  or  square,  with  houses  of  three  dimensions  at 
the  back,  and  the  painted  canvas  for  the  improvised  plays 
nearly  always  showed  three  main  houses,  with  a  balcony  on  the 
middle  house  and  perhaps  on  each  of  the  other  two.^  The  text 
of  the  earliest  English  comedies  implies  a  similar  setting — 
in  Jacke  Jugeler,  the  house  of  Maister  Boungrace;  in  Ralph 
Roister  Doister,  the  house  of  Dame  Custance;  in  Gammer  Gur- 
ton^s  Needle,  the  houses  of  Gammer  Gurton  and  Dame  Chat." 
In  Shakespeare,  aside  from  the  numerous  scenes  of  locality 
undetermined  to  which  modern  editors  prefix  "A  Street,"  "An 
Open  Place,"  etc.,  there  are  some  in  which  the  action  unques- 
tionably requires  a  house  as  the  background.  This  is  the  case — 
to  cite  only  a  few  instances — when  Antipholus  of  Syracuse  is 
led  in  to  dine  with  Adriana,  whereas  the  true  master  of  the 
house,  arriving  later,  finds  the  door  locked  {Comedy  of  Errors, 
II.2;III.l);  when  Jessica,  after  Shylock's  injunction  to  go  in 
and  shut  the  doors,  opens  the  casement  to  her  lover  and  then 
steals  away  with  him  {Merchant  of  Venice  II.  5;  II.6);  and  when 

"  Gr.  Senigaglia,  Capitan  Spavento  (Florence,  1899),  pp.  24-33.  On  the 
general  resemblance  between  these  two  periods,  see  also  Bond,  Early  Plays, 
Introd.,  pp.  xxii-xxiii. 

"  The  three  entrances  (a  heritage  from  the  royal  palace  of  Greek  tragedy) 
seem  to  have  been  represented  even  when  the  action  of  the  play  required  only 
one  house,  as  in  the  Amphitruo  of  Plautus,  or  two  houses,  as  in  the  Adelpki 
of  Terence.  See  Dziatzko-Hauler,  Ed.  Phormio  (Leipzig,  1913),  Introd.,  p.  36. 
The  action  of  the  Rudens  of  Plautus  was  supposed  to  take  place  on  the  seashore, 
and  that  of  the  Heauton  Timorumenos  of  Terence  in  the  country,  but  we  do  not 
know  exactly  how  the  scenes  of  these  plays  were  represented. 

"  Bond,  Early  Plays,  Introd.,  p.  xliii;  Smith,  Contniedm  Dell* Arte,  pp.  116- 
117. 

"  If  we  might  assume  that,  at  the  beginning  of  Act  III,  Hodge  follows  a 
convention  of  Latin  comedy  and  speaks  back  into  the  house  of  Sym  Glover  (Cf . 
Plaut  Cure.  223-228;  MU.  411-414;  Ter.  Adelph.  511-516;  Phorm.  51),  Gamtncr 
Gurton's  Needle  would  present  an  exact  parallel  to  the  classical  setting. 


72 


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lago's  cries  of  "What,  ho!  Thieves!*'  rouse  Brabantio  to  the 
discovery  of  Desdemona's  flight  (Othello  I.  1). 

The  prologue  had  been  characteristic  of  classical  drama  from 
the  time  of  Euripides.  In  Plautine  comedy,  it  took  the  form  of  a 
greeting  to  the  audience,  with  a  statement  of  the  setting  and  a 
summary  of  the  plot,  which  was  delivered  sometimes  by  a 
special  Prologus  {Captivi,  Casina,  Menaechmi)^  sometimes  by  a 
supernatural  being  (the  Lar  Familiaris  in  the  AululariOy  Arc- 
turus  in  the  Rudens)  or  a  personified  abstraction  (Auxilium  in 
the  Cistellariay  Luxuria  in  the  Trinumnms),  sometimes  by  one 
of  the  characters  in  the  play  (Mercury  in  the  Amphitruo^ 
Charinus  in  the  Mercator).  One  Leone  de  Sommi,  an  actor- 
manager  of  16th  Century  Italy,  gives  special  commendation  to 
the  prologue  "in  the  manner  of  the  ancients,"  spoken  by  the 
poet  or  his  representative,  clad  in  a  toga  and  wearing  a  crown 
of  laurel. ^^  We  may  picture  such  a  figure  appearing  to  deliver 
the  graceful  sonnets  at  the  beginning  of  Acts  I  and  II  of  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  or  to  herald  the  splendid  deeds  of  each  act  of  Henry 
V.  "Rumour,  painted  full  of  tongues,"  in  the  Induction  to 
2  Henry  IV,  and  "Time,  the  Chorus,"  at  the  beginning  of  Act 
IV  of  The  Winter^s  Tale,  correspond  roughly  to  Plautus's 
allegorical  figures.  And  though  there  is  no  play  in  which  one  of 
the  characters  gives  the  necessary  information  in  a  direct 
address  to  the  audience,  the  long  speeches  of  Aegeon  to  the 
Duke  in  the  first  scene  of  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  and  of  Lucentio 
to  Tranio  at  the  opening  of  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  perform 
exactly  the  same  function. ^^  The  Epilogues  spoken  by  a 
dancer  in  2  Henry  IV  and  by  the  actor  who  had  played  Rosalind 
in  i45  Yoii  Like  It  correspond  roughly  to  the  dismissal  of  the 
audience  by  the  caterva  in  Plautus  (Captivi,  Cistellaria,  etc.) 
The  last  words  of  the  King  in  AlVs  Well  and  of  Prospero  in  The 
Tempest  run  directly  into  the  Epilogue,  as  in  the  Mercator  and 
Pseudolus;  and  "Your  gentle  hands  lend  us,"  "With  the  help 


"  Cf.  Misogonus,  Prologue,  1.18.  De  Sommi's  dialogue  is  quoted  in  Smith, 
Commedia  delV  Arte,  pp.  69-77.  On  prologue  and  epilogue  in  English  drama,  see 
W.  Creizenach,  The  English  Drama  in  the  Age  of  Shakespeare  (Philadelphia, 
1916;  an  English  translation,  with  additions  and  corrections,  of  Vol.  IV,  Books 
I- VIII,  of  Professor  Creizenach's  Geschichte  des  netieren  Dramas),  pp.   275-277. 

"  In  the  Menaechmi  of  Plautus,  the  Latin  original  of  Tlte  Comedy  of  Errors, 
the  information  is  given  by  the  Prologue. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


73 


of  your  good  hands,"  are  faint  echoes  of  the  Plautine  plaudite}'' 
In  view  of  the  numerous  Latin  comedies  that  close  either  with  a 
banquet  on  the  stage  or  with  the  mention  of  one  behind  the 
scenes,  it  is  perhaps  significant  that  The  Comedy  of  Errors  ends 
with  an  invitation  to  dinner.  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona  with 
the  promise  of  a  marriage  feast,  and  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew 
with  the  feast  itself .^^ 

Other  resemblances  in  form  are  probably  accidental.  One 
might  draw  a  neat  parallel  between  Plautus's  variation  of  lyric 
and  simple  dialogue  meters,  and  Shakespeare's  alternation  of 
verse  and  prose,  especially  when  the  senarius  of  the  Latin  poet 
and  the  prose  of  the  English  bring  a  distinct  lowering  of  emo- 
tional tone.^^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  letters,  which 
Shakespeare  regularly  casts  in  prose,-'^  are  composed  in 
iambic  senarii,  breaking  in  upon  a  lyric  scene,  in  three  different 
passages  in  Plautus.^^ 

The  plots  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  too,  contain  Plautine 
elements — though  all  these  elements  are  found  in  the  romances 
as  well,  and  it  seems  probable  that  in  most  cases  they  reached 
Shakespeare  through  the  latter  channel  rather  than  by  direct 
descent  from  Plautus  and  Terence.  The  Roman  dramatists 
had  made  much  of  mistaken  identity,  whether  due  to  natural 
resemblance  or  to  the  deliberate  assumption  of  another  role. 
Italian  comedy  took  up  the  idea  with  particular  zest,  adding 

'"  The  Prologues  and  Epilogues  of  Troilus  and  Cressida  and  Hefiry  VII I 
also  follow  the  classical  model,  but  are  probably  not  by  Shakespeare. 

i«  This  feature  may  be  a  survival  from  Old  Comedy,  since  the  Lysi strata 
and  Pax  of  Aristophanes  likewise  end  with  a  banquet.  The  feasting  takes  place 
on  the  stage  in  Plautus's  Asinaria,  Pcrsa,  and  Stichiis;  is  anticipated  in  the 
Bacchides,  Curculio,  Pseudolus,  and  Rudens  of  Plautus  and  the  Phormio  of 
Terence.  Cf.  Ralph  Roister  Doister,  V.  4.  16-18;  Gammer  Gurtons  Needle  V. 
2.  326;  Buggbears  V.  9.  69-71. 

»'  The  contrast  is  of  course  more  marked  in  the  "innumcris  numeris"  of 
Plautus  than  in  the  comparatively  simple  meters  of  Terence.  Amph.  463-498, 
Most.  747-782,  Rid.  1338-1356,  and  Trin.  998-1007  furnish  especially  good 
examples. 

20  With  rare  exceptions,  such  as  the  sonnets  of  Love's  Labour's  Lost  IV.  3 
and  AWs  Well  III.  4,  and  the  rhymed  verse  of  All's  Well  IV.  3  and  Hamlet  II.  2. 

2»  Bacch.  997-1035;  Pers.  501-527;  Psetid.  998-1014.  The  letters  of  Asin. 
751-807,  Cure.  429-436,  and  Pseud.  41-73  occur  in  the  middle  of  iambic  scenes; 
in  Bacch.  734-747  the  trochaics  of  the  remainder  of  the  scene  are  used  for  the 
letter. 


74 


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one  complication  to  another  until  the  plots  passed  even  the  most 
remote  limits  of  possibility.^  The  comparatively  simple  theme 
of  the  Menaechmi,  the  confusion  resulting  from  the  likeness 
between  twin  brothers,  is  taken  over  by  Shakespeare  for  The 
Comedy  of  Errors;  but  the  situation  is  complicated  by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  double  for  the  serving-man — a  suggestion  which,  as  a 
German  critic  pointed  out  half  a  century  ago,  may  have  come 
from  the  Amphitruo.^ 

The  underplot  of  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  borrows  from 
Gascoigne's  Supposes  (a  translation  of  Ariosto's  Suppositi) 
two  disguise  motives,  one  of  which  is  closely  paralleled  in 
Plautus.  Just  as  the  wandering  Sycophant  is  hired  to  pose 
as  a  messenger  from  Charmides,  and,  all  unwitting,  confronts 
old  Charmides  himself  (Trin.  843-997),  so  a  Pedant  from 
Mantua  is  induced  to  play  the  part  of  Lucentio^s  father,  Vin- 
centio,  and  is  summoned  to  the  door  by  the  knock  of  "the 
right  Vincentio"  (IV.  2;  IV.  4;  V.  1).  The  other  motive  is  a 
composite  of  several  situations  in  classical  comedy.  The 
Captivi  represents  a  noble-minded  slave  who,  when  he  and  his 
master  are  prisoners  of  war,  assumes  his  master's  dress  and 
name,  so  that  the  latter  may  escape.  In  the  EunuchuSj  too, 
an  exchange  of  clothing  takes  place,  but  this  time  the  object 
is  to  give  Chaerea  access  to  the  girl  with  whom  he  is  in  love. 
Similarly,  in  the  AmphitrtiOy  Jupiter  and  Mercury  take  the 
forms  of  Amphitruo  and  his  slave  Sosia,  in  order  that  Jupiter 
may  enjoy  Amphitruo's  wife.  The  lover  in  Shakespeare's 
play  first  arranges  that  his  servant  Tranio  shall  "keep  house 
and  port  and  servants"  in  his  stead,  and  then,  in  the  guise  of  a 
pedant,  presents  himself  as  a  tutor  for  his  lady.^    Of  the  farcical 

"  On  the  whole  subject  of  disguise  in  drama,  see  V.  O.  Freeburg,  Disguise 
Plots  in  Elizabethan  Drama  (New  York,  1915).  Cf.  Creizenach,  English  Dramas 
pp.  220-223.  The  theme  is  of  course  common  in  the  literature  of  the  East  and 
in  mediaeval  romances  which  are  quite  indep>endent  of  Latin  influence. 

^  M.  Rapp,  Geschichte  des  griechischen  Schauspiels  (Tubingen,  1862),  p.  342, 
quoted  by  K.  von  Reinhardstoettner,  Plautus:  Spdtere  Bearbeilungen  plautin- 
ischer  Lustpiele  (Leipzig,  1886),  pp.  574-575.  The  similarity  of  Comedy  of 
Errors  J  I.  2,  II.  2,  III.  1,  III.  2,  IV.  1,  IV.  4,  V.  1,  to  scenes  in  the  Amphitruo  was 
noted  by  Paul  Wislicenus,  Zwei  neuentdcckte  S hakes peare-Quellen^  in  Die  Liter- 
atury  1874,  Nos.  1  and  3  (reviewed  in  Shakes peare- J akrhuch  9  [1874],  p.  330). 

"  Ariosto,  in  the  prologue  to  the  prose  version  of  /  Suppositi  (quoted  by 
Bond,  Early  Plays,  Introd.,  p.  lii)  acknowledges  his  debt  to  the  Eunuchus  and 
the  Captivi. 


The  PlatUine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


75 


developments  of  this  idea,  so  frequent  in  Italian  comedy,  there 
is  a  hint  in  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  IV. 2,  where  Mistress 
Ford  hustles  Falstaff  into  the  gown  of  "my  maid's  aunt,  the 
fat  woman  of  Brainford,"  and  then  stands  by  to  see  him  "most 
unpitifully"  beaten  by  Master  Ford. 

In  a  variant  which  is  not  found  in  Plautus  and  occurs  in 
only  a  few  scattering  instances  in  Italian  drama,  but  is  repeated- 
ly employed  by  English  playwrights,  a  character  assumes  dis- 
guise for  the  purpose  of  watching  unobserved.  The  Duke  in 
Measure  for  Measure  announces  his  intention  of  quitting  the 
city,  but  actually  remains,  in  the  garb  of  a  friar,  and  takes  an 
important  part  in  the  action.  King  Polixenes  attends  the  sheep- 
shearing  in  disguise,  in  order  to  spy  upon  the  love-affairs  of  his 
son  (Winter^ s  Tale  IV.4).  And  in  Lear,  the  banished  Kent, 
returning  in  humble  guise,  and  the  outlawed  Edgar,  as  "poor 
Tom,'^  still  wait  upon  their  king. 

Another  off-shoot — and  by  far  the  most  popular — represents 
a  woman  "caparisoned  like  a  man."  Julia,  Portia,  Rosalind, 
Viola,  Imogen,  all  have  their  prototypes  in  Italian  drama  and 
romance,  although  the  surpassing  charm  of  these  heroines  is 
due  to  Shakespeare  alone.  The  additional  complication  which 
gives  to  Viola  a  twin  brother  exactly  like  her,  is  found  in  Italian 
literature  again  and  again. 

The  reverse  of  this  figure,  the  "Boy  Bride,"  comes  much 
more  directly  from  Latin  comedy.  The  story  of  the  old  man  who 
married  a  fair  maiden,  only  to  find  her  a  boy  in  disguise,  was 
handled  by  Plautus  in  the  Casina,  enjoyed  some  popularity  on 
the  Italian  stage,  and  received  its  most  notable  treatment  in 
Jonson's  Epicoene,  or  the  Silent  Woman.  Shakespeare  has  only 
two  faint  reminiscences  of  this  situation — in  the  Induction  to 
The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  (borrowed  from  the  earlier  Taming  of  a 
Shrew),  where  a  lad  plays  "madam  wife"  to  Christopher  Sly, 
and  in  the  closing  scene  of  The  Merry  Wives,  where  Dr.  Caius 
and  Slender  are  duped.  Each  snatches  from  the  troop  of  fairies 
a  dancer  whom  he  supposes  to  be  sweet  Anne  Page,  and  then 
each  discovers  that  he  has  married  "oon  garsoon,"  "a  great 
lubberly  boy."^^ 

*  Students  of  folk  ritual  will  notice  the  resemblance  of  the  disguised  dancers 
of  The  Merry  Wives  to  the  "Bessy"  or  "Maid  Marian"  of  sword  play  or  morris 
dance,  and  may  be  inclined  to  trace  all  these  figures  back  to  the  primitive 
ceremonial  whereby  men  and  women  exchanged  clothing. 


76 


Coulter 


Another  constantly  recurring  motive  in  New  Comedy 
(especially  in  Menander)  is  the  restoration  of  a  long-lost  son  or 
daughter.26  Sometimes  the  child  has  been  separated  from  its 
parents  by  an  accident ;2^  sometimes  it  is  a  love-child  and  has 
been  exposed  to  preserve  the  mother's  good  name.^^  This 
motive  occurs  in  three  of  Shakespeare's  plays  {Comedy  of  Errors, 
Winter's  Tale,  and  Cymheline),  and  in  the  first  and  last  was 
apparently  added  by  him  to  the  plot  as  he  found  it  in  his 
sources.  The  Comedy  of  Errors  differs  slightly  from  its  original 
in  making  a  storm  at  sea  responsible  for  the  separation  of  the 
family,  whereas  in  the  Menaechmi  one  son  strays  away  in  a 
crowd;  the  kidnapping  of  the  two  little  princes  in  Cymbeline 
corresponds  to  the  loss  of  Hanno's  daughters  in  the  Poenulus; 
and  the  voyage  of  Antigonus  to  **the  deserts  of  Bohemia,"  with 
the  cruelly  slandered  babe  of  Leontes  {Winter's  Tale  III.3) 
recalls  the  mission  of  Lampadio  in  the  Cistellaria.  The  "most 
curious  mantle,  wrought  by  the  hand  of  his  queen  mother," 
which  proves  the  identity  of  Arvigarus,  "a,  mole,  a  sanguine 
star,"  upon  the  neck  of  Guiderius  {Cymbeline  V.5.  360-368), 
and  "the  mantle  of  Queen  Hermione's,  her  jewel  about  the 
neck  of  it,  the  letters  of  Antigonus  found  with  it,"  which  pro- 
claim Perdita  the  king's  daughter  {Winter's  Tale  V.2.  36-38), 
are  exactly  like  the  "tokens"  of  classical  comedy .^^ 


*  The  story  of  Pericles,  with  its  marvelous  conglomeration  of  perils  by  land 
and  by  sea,  treasures  washed  up  by  the  waves,  and  the  reunion  of  the  long- 
separated  father,  mother,  and  daughter,  is  based  on  the  mediaeval  romance  of 
Apollonius  of  Tyre.  For  the  interaction  between  drama  and  romance,  see  p.  67 
above. 

"Plautus,  Captivi,  CurcuUo,  Epidicus,  Menaechmi,  Poenulus,  Rjtdens; 
Terence,  Andria,  Eunuchus.  Similarly,  in  Supposes,  the  five-year-old  son  of 
Cleander  is  lost  at  the  sack  of  Otranto. 

28  Plautus,  Casina,  Cistellaria;  Terence,  Adelphi,  Hecyra.  In  Terence's 
Heauton  Timor umenos  the  child  of  a  legal  marriage  is  exposed  simply  because 
of  her  undesirable  sex.  Misogonus  represents  the  elder  of  twin  sons  as  being 
"sent  away"  at  birth,  without  adequate  reason. 

29  A  casket  of  crepundia  is  mentioned  in  Plautus's  Cistellaria  and  Terence's 
Eunuchus,  and  the  tiny  trinkets  are  described  in  the  Epidicus  and  Rudens  of 
Plautus.  (Cf.  the  Ion  of  Euripides.)  "Privie  marks"  have  a  precedent  in  the 
scar  on  the  left  hand  of  Agorastocles  (Plant.  Poen.  1073-1074),  and  the  scar  on 
the  brow  of  Orestes  in  the  Eiectra  of  Euripides.  Similarly,  the  identity  of 
Eugonus  in  Misogonus  is  established  by  a  sixth  toe,  and  that  of  Dulipo  in 
Supposes  by  a  mole  on  the  left  shoulder. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


77 


Perhaps  the  most  common  means  of  identification  in  Greek 
and  Latin  drama  is  the  ring  snatched  by  the  mother  of  the  child 
from  the  hand  of  its  father  on  the  night  of  their  one  meeting. 
This  motive  reappears,  in  a  somewhat  different  setting,  in  ^//'^ 
Well  IV.2,  V.3,  where  two  rings  are  brought  forth  to  prove  that 
Bertram,  under  the  impression  that  he  was  meeting  Diana,  has 
really  wedded  Helena.  The  exchange  of  rings  also  figures,  in 
connection  with  disguise,  in  the  plots  of  The  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  and  Twelfth  Night}^ 

Some  of  the  characters  in  Shakespeare's  plays  show  a  remote 
resemblance  to  their  classical  forbears.  Beyond  an  occasional 
hint  of  lowly  rank  {Winter's  Tale,  Tempest),  which  could  have 
come  into  English  quite  as  readily  through  the  romances  as 
through  Italian  comedy,  the  heroine  has  little  in  common  with 
the  meretrices  of  Plautus.  The  hero,  however,  continues  to  be 
"a  proper  stripling  and  an  amorous."  Lucentio's  undoing 
{Taming  of  the  Shrew  I  A)  recalls  the  fate  of  Antipho  in  the 
Phormio  or  Chaerea  in  the  Eunuchus,  and  Romeo's  rhapsody  on 
love  {Romeo  and  Juliet.  1. 1. 167-200)  sounds  the  same  note  as  the 
soliloquy  of  Alcesimarchus  (Plaut.  Cist.  203-228).  Master 
and  servant  are  still  on  familiar  terms;  witness  Lucentio's  out- 
pouring of  his  heart  to  Tranio  {Taming  of  the  Shrew  LI.  153- 
163),  and  the  gibes  of  Speed  at  Valentine's  doleful  plight  {Two 
Gentlemen  ILL  18-33).^^  The  balancing  of  one  love-affair  by 
another  {Merchant  of  Venice),  the  portrayal  of  contrasted  char- 
acters {Two  Gentlemen),  and  the  presentation  of  such  problems 
as  the  conflict  between  love  and  duty  or  love  and  friendship 
{Two  Gentlemen),  all  have  parallels  in  Plautus  and  Terence.^^ 


30  The  ring  taken  by  the  girl  figures  in  Terence's  Adelphi,  also  in  the  Epi- 
trepontes  of  Menander  and  probably  in  the  lost  Auge  of  Euripides,  while  the 
plot  of  the  Hecyra  of  Terence  turns  upon  the  ring  snatched  by  the  young  man. 
Only  the  first  of  these  motives  appears  in  the  story  of  Boccaccio  (Third  Day, 
Ninth  Novel)  upon  which  the  plot  of  AlVs  Well  is  based.  A  ring  also  brings 
about  the  recognition  in  the  Curculi-o  of  Plautus  and  the  Heautmi  Timorumenos 
of  Terence,  although  the  circumstances  are  somewhat  different. 

«  Cf.  Plaut.  Asin.  616-637;  Cure.  1-95;  Poen.  129-197;  Pseud.  3-128;  Ter. 
Eun.  46-80.  For  some  points  in  the  discussion  of  comic  characters,  I  am 
indebted  to  Bond,  Early  Plays,  Introd.,  pp.  xxix-xli;  Smith,  Commedia  delVArte, 
pp.  4-10,  84-87;  Creizenach,  English  Drama,  pp.  294-312. 

«  Two  young  men  in  love  appear  in  the  Bacchides,  Epidicus,  and  Mostellaria 
of  Plautus,  and  in  all  of  Terence's  plays  except  the  Hecyra.   The  dutiful  Lysiteles 


78 


Coulter 


The  pater  familias  of  Latin  comedy  was  useful  chiefly 
because  he  furnished  (albeit  unwillingly)  the  necessary  funds 
for  his  son's  romance.  Sometimes  the  memory  of  his  own  wild 
oats  made  him  tolerant  of  the  young  man's  misdemeanors;  more 
often  he  took  an  uncompromising  stand  as  censor  of  morals  and 
laudator  temporis  acti.^  In  four  plays  of  Plautus  {Asinaria^ 
Bacchides,  Casinaj  Mercator),  the  old  men  cast  lustful  eyes  at 
their  sons'  mistresses;  in  the  Aululariay  the  rich  old  bachelor 
Megadorus  makes  an  honorable  request  for  the  hand  of  the 
miser's  daughter,  without  dowry.  Italian  dramatists  took  over 
these  figures,  and,  by  exaggerating  their  ridiculous  aspects, 
developed  the  Pantaloon  and  the  Pedant  or  Doctor,  the  former, 
as  a  rule,  the  father  of  hero  or  heroine,  the  latter  often  a  suitor 
for  the  lady's  hand.  Both  were  unattractive  figures,  stupid, 
avaricious,  amorous,  and  easily  duped  by  the  young  people  in 
the  play.  Shakespeare's  treatment  is  much  more  kindly,  but 
we  can  still  recognize  traits  of  the  classical  senex  in  the  stern 
decrees  of  Antonio  {Two  Gentlemen  1.3)  and  Baptista  {Taming 
oj  the  Shrew  I.l),  in  Capulet's  reminiscences  of  by-gone  days 
{Romeo  and  Juliet  1.5),  and  in  the  "wise  saws"  of  Polonius  to 
Laertes  {Hamlet  1.3).  Silvia's  father  traps  Valentine  by  the 
story  of  a  coy  lady  whom  his  "aged  eloquence"  has  failed  to 
move  {Two  Gentlemen  III.l.  76-136),  and  "old  Signior  Gremio" 
offers  plate  and  gold,  Tyrian  tapestry  and  arras  counterpoints, 
as  dower  for  the  fair  Bianca  {Taming  of  the  Shrew  II.  1.  347-364). 
The  Pedant  of  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  is  very  faintly  outlined, 
but  Holofernes  of  Love's  Labour^s  Lost  has  the  characteristic 
traits  of  the  Italian  Doctor.  His  speech  is  a  hodge-podge  of 
Latin  and  English  ("scraps"  from  "a  great  feast  of  languages"); 
he  talks  pompously  of  Dictynna  and  Ovidius  Naso,  quotes  a 
line  from  "good  old  Mantuan"  and  then  caps  it  with  an  Italian 
couplet  (IV. 2;  V.l).^*     Sir  Hugh  Evans,  of  The  Merry  Wives, 

b  contrasted  with  the  spendthrift  Lesbonicus  in  the  Trinummus  of  Plautus,  and 
the  apparent  conflict  between  love  and  friendship  complicates  the  plot  of  the 
Bacchides  and  the  Adelphi. 

»3  Cf.  Plant.  Trin.  279-323;  Ter.  Heaut.  200-210.  The  father's  moralizing 
tendencies  are  shared  by  Lydus,  the  paedagogus  of  the  Bacchides.  (Cf .  especially 
11.419-448.) 

"\V.  Keller  {Shakes pear e- J ahrhnch  34(1898,1  pp.  278-279)  considers  Holo- 
fernes indebted  to  the  hero  of  the  Cambridge  University  play  Paedantius,  and 
Sidney  Lee  {The  French  Renaissance  in  England,  New  York,  1910,  pp.  423-427) 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


79 


is  drawn  with  a  gentler  hand,  but  he  also  airs  his  own  learning 
when  he  asks  young  William  Page  "some  questions  in  his 
accidence"  (IV.l).  Like  his  Italian  predecessors,  Sir  Hugh 
talks  with  an  accent,  and  his  mixture  of  Welsh  dialect  and  Latin 
must  have  given  very  much  the  same  effect  as  the  Bolognese 
dialect  and  Latin  of  Doctor  Gratiano. 

In  the  comedies  of  Plautus  the  heroine  was  sometimes 
accompanied  by  an  aged  lena  {Asinaria,  Cistellaria,  Curculio, 
Mostellaria);  in  those  of  Terence  (following  the  Euripidean 
tradition),  she  was  usually  attended  by  a  nurse  or  a  faithful  old 
slave  {Adelphi,  Eunuchus,  Heauton  Timorumenos,  Phormio), 
The  latter  was  a  rather  shadowy  figure,  not  unkindly  portrayed; 
the  former  was  the  personification  of  cruelty,  inebriacy,  and 
greed.  These  two  figures  merged  in  the  Italign  hallia,  a  gar- 
rulous old  woman  who  acted  as  go-between  for  the  lovers. 
Such  a  character  survives  in  Dame  Quickly  of  The  Merry  Wives 
(especially  1.4;  III.4)  and,  most  notably,  in  Juliet's  nurse. 
A  trace  of  the  nurse's  coarseness  lingers,  too,  in  younger  maids 
who  act  as  confidantes  for  their  mistresses— Lucetta  in  The 
Two  Gentlemen,  Margaret  in  Much  Ado,  Emilia  in  Othello. 

The  slave,  who  was  always  the  chief  fun-maker,  and  often 
the  most  important  actor,  of  classical  comedy,  passes  over  into 
the  resourceful  servant  of  Italian  drama,  and  thence  into  the 
English  clown— a  character  who  retains  all  the  humorous 
possibilities  of  the  Latin  servus,  although  he  no  longer  controls 
the  plot.  Like  the  Plautine  slave,  he  is  given  to  quibbles  and 
retorts  {Two  Gentlemen  11.5)^^  and  to  abuse  of  other  servants 
{Romeo  and  Juliet  I.  1);^  he  soliloquizes  {Taming  of  the  Shrew 
IV.l),"  holds  mock-serious  debates  with  himself  {Merchant  of 
Venice  11. 2), ^^  and  addresses  remarks  directly  to  the  audience 
{Two  Gentlemen  11.3)  f  he  shows  the  same  pretended  stupidity 


thinks  that  he  detects  in  the  dialogue  of  Love's  Labour's  Lost  IV.  2,  Merry  Wives 
IV.  1,  and  Taming  of  the  Shrew  III.  1  the  influence  of  French  plays  on  Italian 
models,  especially  Le  Fiddle  and  Le  Uquais  of  Larivey. 

«  Cf.  Plant.  Epid.  1-80;  Pcrs.  16-32.  In  the  notes  on  this  paragraph,  I 
have  given  only  a  few  of  the  many  possible  classical  parallels. 

3»  Cf.  Plant.  Asin.  297-307;  Most.  1-75. 

»7  Cf.  Plant.  Aid.  587-607;  Merc.  111-119;  Ter.  Heaut.  668-678. 

w  Cf.  Plant.  Asin.  249-264;  Epid.  81-100;  Ter.  And.  206-225. 

»» Cf.  Plant.  Bacch.  1072-1074;  Pseud.  562-573a, 


80 


Coulter 


{Taming  of  the  Shrew  1.2.5-19);*°  the  same  burlesque  exaggera- 
tion of  grief  (Two  Gentlemen  11.3).*^  These  traits  are  most 
marked  in  the  early  plays,  and  Launce,  Launcelot  Gobbo,  and 
Grumio  are  close  kin  to  the  slave  of  Plautus. 

Sometimes  a  subordinate  r61e  in  Latin  comedy  fell  to  a  boy, 
whose  pert  retorts  to  questions  (Plant.  Pers.  183-250;  Stick. 
315-325)  and  shrewd  characterizations  of  other  people  in  the 
play  (Plant.  Capt.  909-921;  Pseud.  767-789)  filled  a  gap  in  the 
action  and  put  the  audience  in  a  good  humor.  Moth  in  Lovers 
Labour^ s  Lost^  Biondello  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  Falstaff^s 
diminutive  page  in  2  Henry  /F,  and  the  boy  attached  to  the 
"three  swashers"  of  Henry  V,  all  belong  to  this  category,  and 
slight  as  are  their  parts,  their  relationship  to  the  Plautine  puer 
is  unmistakable. 

But  of  all  the  characters  who  have  come  down  from  classical 
times,  the  braggart  soldier  has  the  longest  history.  He  flour- 
ished on  the  Italian  stage  for  three  hundred  years,  and  "Capitan 
Spavento  da  ValP  Inferna"  was  the  favorite  role  of  that  prince 
of  comedians,  Francesco  Andreini.  In  English,  he  furnished 
the  basic  features  for  "the  most  humorous  character  in  all 
literature."  For  underneath  his  mountain  of  flesh  and  the 
whimsical  humor  that  endears  him  to  every  heart,  Falstaff  is 
still  the  miles  gloriosus,  lauded  by  his  associates  for  his  military 
prowess  and  his  power  over  feminine  hearts,  but  doomed  to 
disaster  both  on  the  field  of  battle  and  in  the  lists  of  love. 
Other  braggarts,  too,  tread  the  stage  of  Shakespeare:  Don 
Armado,  the  fantastical  Spaniard;  Parolles,  who  displays  the 
most  contemptible  traits  of  the  Italian  hravo\  Bardolph,  Nym, 
and  Pistol;  Doctor  Caius  and  Sir  Hugh  Evans;  and  Sir  Andrew 
Aguecheek.  All  these  show  some  characteristics  of  the  classical 
miles — his  boastf  ulness  when  no  peril  threatens,  and  his  cowar- 
dice in  the  face  of  danger,  his  ambition  to  be  a  lady-killer,  and 
his  ignominious  end.*^ 

*o  Cf.  Plaut.  Poen.  357-399;  Pseud,  22-96. 

«  Cf.  Plaut.  Pseud.  79-82. 

^  On  the  figure  of  the  miles  gloriosus  in  literature,  see  J.  Thummel,  Der 
Miles  Gloriosus  bei  Shakespeare,  in  Shakespeare- J ahrbuch  13  (1878),  pp.  1-12 
O.   Ribbeck,   Alazon   (Leipzig,    1882);   K.   von   Reinhardstoettner,   Plautus 
Spdtere  Bearbeitungen  plautinischer  Lustspiele  (Leipzig,   1886),  pp.  595-680 
Gr.  Senigaglia,  Capitan  Spavento  (Florence,  1899).    It  should  be  noted  that  the 
Falstaff  of  The  Merry  Wives  is  much  closer  to  the  stock  character  than  the 
Falstaff  of  the  historical  plays. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


81 


Not  only  the  plots  and  the  characters,  but  the  stage-tricks 
of  ancient  comedy  persist  in  Shakespeare.  Characters  are  very 
frequently  heralded  before  their  entrance  (e.g..  As  You  Like  It 
1.1.28).*^  Proteus  completely  overlooks  Valentine,  although 
the  latter  must  have  been  in  plain  sight  on  the  stage  {Two 
Gentlemen  111.1.188-191);^  and  Julia,  from  her  hiding-place, 
listens  to  her  lover's  wooing  of  Silvia,  and  comments  aside  on 
what  she  hears  {Two  Gentlemen  IV. 2).**  Satirical  asides  on 
the  speech  of  another  character,  a  device  used  by  Plautus  and 
Terence,  and  copied  repeatedly  by  Italian  comic  writers,  occur 
in  the  comments  of  the  Second  Lord  on  Cloten's  boastful 
utterances  {Cymbeline  1.2).'**  The  ancient  device  by  which  a 
slave  or  parasite,  in  his  anxiety  to  be  the  bearer  of  news,  knocked 
down  everybody  in  his  way,  and  then  arrived  too  breathless  to 
deliver  his  message,  is  suggested  in  The  Comedy  of  Errors  III. 
2.71,  IV.2.28-30,  Much  Ado  V.2.95-102,  and,  most  humorously, 
in  Romeo  and  Juliet  11.5.18-66.*^  The  cook,  with  his  spit  and 
basket,  still  makes  confusion  worse  confounded  {Romeo  and 
Juliet  1.3;  1.5;  IV.2;  IV.4);*^  and  knocking  "as  he  would  beat 
down  the  gate,"  occurs  again  and  again  with  comic  effect 
{Comedy  of  Errors  III.l.SOfF.;  Taming  of  the  Shrew  1.2.5  ff.; 
V.l.Uff.;  Merry  Wives  1.1.74;  2  Henry  IV.  11.4.380).*^  And 
horseplay,  cudgelings,  and  fisticuffs  still  call  forth  a  laugh 
from  the  groundlings,  just  as  they  did  in  the  days  of  Plautus 


♦>Cf.  Plaut.  Amph.  148;  Ter.  And.  174;  Ralph  Roister  Doister  IV.  5.5. 
Comic  cliches  are  discussed  in  Bond,  Early  Plays,  Introd.,  pp.  xlvi-1;  Creizen- 
ach,  English  Drama,  pp.  275,  299-303,  325-326.  My  notes  include  only  a  few 
of  the  many  classical  parallels. 

**Cf.  Plaut.  Asin.  267-296;  Ter.  PJwrm.  841-851;  Ralph  Roister  Doister 
V.  2. 1-4;  Supposes  V.  2. 1-7. 

«  Cf.  Plaut.  Asin.  876-906;  Ter.  Phorm.  231-285;  Misogonus  U.  3. 

«  Cf.  Plaut.  Mil.  20;  Ter.  Eun.  401  ff.;  Supposes  1. 2. 

*'  Cf.  Plaut.  Cure.  277-328;  Merc.  109-161;  Ter.  Adelph.  305-327;  Ralph 
Roister  Doister  III.  3.  7  ff.;  Supposes  V.  7. 1  ff.;  Buggbears  V.  4.  22ff.;  Misogonus 
IV.  1.22-24. 

♦•  Cf.  Plaut.  Aul.  280-459;  Merc.  741-782;  Disobedient  Child  (in  HazUtt's 
Ed.  of  Dodsley's  Old  English  Plays,  Vol.  II),  pp.  281-286;  Supposes  III.  1; 
Misogonus  IV.  2.  17. 

*»Cf.  Plaut.  Amph.  1020-1027;  Most.  445-454;  Jacke  Jugeler  326-331, 
361-362;  Supposes  IV.  3.  68-74;  Bugbears  III,  2.  29-33.  The  same  insistent 
knocking  is  introduced  without  humorous  effect  in  TroUus  and  Cressida  IV.  2. 
34  ff.,  and  serves  to  heighten  the  tragedy  in  Macbeth  U.  2.  57  ff. 


82 


Coulter 


(Comedy  of  Errors  1.2.92  flf.;  II.2.23  ff.;  IV.4.17  S.;  raming  of 
the  Shrew  1.2.12  ff.;  IV.1.151  ff.).^^ 

Even  the  dialogue  of  Shakespeare's  plays  occasionally  shows 
a  Plautine  coloring,  most  noticeable  in  scenes  like  AlVs  Well 
II. 2,  where  the  Clown's  reiterated  "O  Lord,  sir!  Spare  not  me!" 
corresponds  to  the  Censeo  and  I  modo  of  Plautine  slaves  {Rud. 
1269-1278;  Trin.  584-590).  In  view  of  the  widespread  use  of 
foreign  language  and  dialect  in  dramatic  literature,  too  much 
weight  should  not  be  attached  to  chance  resemblances.  We 
may  note,  however,  that  the  Greek  words  of  Plautus  give  about 
the  same  tone  as  the  sprinkling  of  French  and  Italian  phrases  in 
Shakespeare,  and  that  the  broken  English  of  the  Welsh,  Scotch, 
and  Irish  soldiers  in  Henry  F,  and  of  Doctor  Caius  and  Sir 
Hugh  Evans  in  The  Merry  Wives,  finds  many  parallels  in  Italian 
comedy.  The  scene  in  which  the  Princess  Katherine  of  France 
learns  English  by  the  "direct  method"  {Henry  V.  III.  4)  bears 
a  faint  resemblance  to  the  monologue  of  the  Carthaginian  Hanno 
(Plant.  Poen.  930-954),  and  the  Boy's  interpretation  of  the 
French  captive's  plea  {Henry  V  IV.4)  must  have  made  the  same 
humorous  appeal  as  Milphio's  attempt  to  translate  Punic 
greetings  into  Latin  {Poen.  995-1028).5i 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  Shakespeare  typifies  the  in- 
fluences which  came  into  English  both  directly  from  Latin 
comedy  and  indirectly  through  German  education-drama  and 
Italian  drama  and  romance.  We  see  survivals  of  the  tradition 
in  a  few  externals,  such  as  stage  setting  and  the  use  of  Prologue 
and  Epilogue;  in  some  devices  of  plot  (which  are  common  in 
the  romances  as  well) — for  example,  mistaken  identity  and  the 
restoration  of  long-lost  children;  in  characters,  drawn  on  con- 
ventional lines  in  Shakespeare's  earlier  plays,  but  rounded  out 


"^oCf.  Plaut.  Amph.  370-397;  Aid.  628-660;  Cas.  404-421;  Jacke  Jugeler 
442  ff.;  694;  910;  Misogonus  II.  1.  61-68. 

"  On  the  use  of  dialect  and  foreign  language  in  Italian  plays,  see  Smith, 
Commedia  delV  Arte  p.  6;  Senigaglia,  Capitan  Spavento,  pp.  16-17,  78,  84-85. 
The  effect  of  the  foreign  language  was  most  humorous  when  foreign  words  could 
be  confused  with  native  words  of  similar  sound.  So,  in  Poen.  998,  1002-1003, 
Milphio  understands  danni  as  doni,  and  meharhocca  as  misera  bucca;  and  in 
Henry  V.  IV.  4,  Pistol  interprets  "Seigneur  Dieu!"  as  "Signieur  Dew,"  the 
gendeman's  name.  Latin  words  are  distorted  by  the  Man-Cook  in  The  Dis- 
obedient Child  (Dodsley's  Old  English  Flays,  Vol.  II,  pp.  284-285),  and  by  Dame 
Quickly  in  The  Merry  Wives  IV.  1. 


The  Plautine  Tradition  in  Shakespeare 


83 


and  individualized  in  his  mature  work;  and  in  stage-tricks  like 
the  perennially  humorous  beating  on  the  gate. 

The  plots  of  Shakespeare  show  Plautine  elements  down  to 
the  very  end  of  his  literary  activity,  and  in  one  play  of  the 
earliest  and  one  of  the  latest  period  he  has  added  the  stock 
"recognition-scene"  of  classical  drama  to  the  material  which  he 
found  in  his  sources.  In  general,  however,  the  resemblances 
are  more  marked  in  the  early  plays,  some  of  which  can  be 
traced  directly  to  Latin  or  Italian  sources:  The  Comedy  of 
Errors,  borrowed  from  Plautus;  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew, 
taken  (in  part)  from  Plautus's  imitator  Ariosto;  The  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor,  reminiscent  of  the  miles  gloriosus  and  of  his 
descendants  in  Italian  comedy;  and  portions  of  The  Two  Gentle- 
men of  Verona,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  and  AlVs  Well. 

Cornelia  C.  Coulter 

Vassar  College 


84 


Bryan 


BfiOWULF  NOTES 


303  Eofor-lfc  scionoa 

304  ofer  lil6or-ber[g]an  gehroden  golde, 

305  iih.  ond  f^r-heard  ferh-wearde  h^old, 

306  g(it$-m6d  grummon. 

"The  boar  figures  adorned  with  gold  shone  over  the  cheek-guards;  bright 
and  hardened  in  the  fire  they  gave  life  protection;  war-minded  they  raged." 

The  renderings  of  this  passage  suggested  in  the  various  edi- 
tions of  the  Beowulf  all  assume  the  necessity  of  emendation  in 
the  last  half-verse.  The  only  suggestion  for  retaining  the 
MS.  reading,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  is  Schiicking^s  statement 
in  the  ninth  and  tenth  Schiicking-  Heyne  editions  that  Brandl 
"(brieflich)  will  gUd-nidd  grummon  in  Hinblick  auf  grimman 
*roar*  beibehalten."  Schiicking,  however,  gives  no  hint  as 
to  how  Brandl  would  translate  this  half-verse  or  how  he 
would  fit  it  into  the  context.  Chambers  in  the  most  recent 
English  edition  of  the  Biowulf  (Cambridge,  1914)  asserts  that 
"the  MS.  reading,  gUpmdd  grummon,  hardly  admits  of  inter- 
pretation." If,  however,  eofor-lic  is  construed  as  the  subject  of 
grummon,  the  MS.  reading  affords  not  merely  a  possible  inter- 
pretation but  a  spirited  and  picturesque  rendering.  The  poet  of 
the  Beomulf  concentrated  his  attention  upon  the  fierce  appear- 
ance of  the  boar  figures  upon  the  helmets,  and  by  a  characteris- 
tically vigorous  Old  English  figure  represented  them  as  savagely 
raging  or  roaring.  The  only  syntactic  difficulty  in  rendering 
this  entire  passage  without  resort  to  emendation  is  the  singular 
Mold  interchanging  with  the  plurals  scionon  and  grummon. 
The  singular  verb  form  may  be  explained  (Klaeber,  Mod.  Phil., 
3,  451)  by  construing  its  subject,  eofor-lic,  as  a  collective  in  this 
instance;  or  it  may  be  merely  another  example  in  the  Beowulf 
of  a  singular  verb  form  with  a  plural  subject  (see  Klaeber,  Mod. 
Phil.,  3,  259).  A  possible  motive  for  the  change  in  verb  form 
in  this  particular  passage  is  a  momentary  change  in  the  poet's 
point  of  view — from  the  savage  appearance  of  the  boar  figures 
to  the  protecting  service  rendered  by  each. 


